Vanbrugh Castle is a house designed and built by
John Vanbrugh for his own family, located on
Maze Hill
Maze Hill is an area in Greenwich and Blackheath, in south-east London, lying to the east of Greenwich Park, and west of the Westcombe Park area of Blackheath. It is part of the Royal Borough of Greenwich, and takes its name from the main thorou ...
on the eastern edge of
Greenwich Park
Greenwich Park is a former hunting park in Greenwich and one of the largest single green spaces in south-east London. One of the Royal Parks of London, and the first to be enclosed (in 1433), it covers , and is part of the Greenwich World Heritag ...
in London, to the north of
Blackheath, with views to the west past the
Old Royal Naval College
The Old Royal Naval College is the architectural centrepiece of Maritime Greenwich, a World Heritage Site in Greenwich, London, described by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) as being of "outstanding ...
at
Greenwich
Greenwich ( , ,) is a town in south-east London, England, within the ceremonial county of Greater London. It is situated east-southeast of Charing Cross.
Greenwich is notable for its maritime history and for giving its name to the Greenwich ...
down to the Thames reaching as far as the
Houses of Parliament
The Palace of Westminster serves as the meeting place for both the House of Commons and the House of Lords, the two houses of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Informally known as the Houses of Parliament, the Palace lies on the north ban ...
.
History
Vanbrugh years
The castle was designed and built after Vanbrugh had been the architect of the
baroque houses at
Castle Howard
Castle Howard is a stately home in North Yorkshire, England, within the civil parish of Henderskelfe, located north of York. It is a private residence and has been the home of the Carlisle branch of the Howard family for more than 300 years ...
and
Blenheim Palace, and shortly after Vanbrugh succeeded his architectural mentor
Christopher Wren as Surveyor to the Royal Naval Hospital in 1716. Vanbrugh took a lease of a 12-acre triangular site of the
Westcombe estate from
Sir Michael Biddulph, 2nd Baronet in 1718, now known as Vanbrugh Fields.
In contrast to the baroque style used for his professional commissions, he chose a more
medieval
In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire ...
, almost
gothic, style for his own house. Built on the southwestern corner of the triangular site, it predates the first clearly
Gothic Revival house at
Strawberry Hill by 30 years. The main structure was finished in 1719, a three-storey square keep with basement built in brick with tall narrow windows, augmented on the south side square by three four-storey towers: two square flanking towers with battlements and a central projecting circular tower enclosing stairs capped by a conical copper roof. An arched corbel table below the moulded parapet is a feature unique to Vanbrugh at this date, also found at
Kings Weston House
Kings Weston House () is a historic building in Kings Weston Lane, Kingsweston, Bristol, England.
History
It was built between 1712 and 1719 was designed by Sir John Vanbrugh for Edward Southwell on the site of an earlier Tudor house, remodell ...
(1710–1725). The building's narrow
sash windows echo medieval
arrowslit
An arrowslit (often also referred to as an arrow loop, loophole or loop hole, and sometimes a balistraria) is a narrow vertical aperture in a fortification through which an archer can launch arrows or a crossbowman can launch bolts.
The interio ...
s or
lancets. A garden on the building's lead roof makes the most of the views over the Thames and London.
Aged 55, Vanbrugh married the 26-year-old Henrietta Maria Yarborough in York in January 1719, and he soon added a wing to the east side of the house in a similar style, creating a lopsided, asymmetric construction – said to be the first asymmetric house built in Europe since the Renaissance. It has the "castle air" adopted in Vanbrugh's remodelling of
Kimbolton Castle
Kimbolton Castle is a country house in Kimbolton, Cambridgeshire, England. It was the final home of King Henry VIII's first wife, Catherine of Aragon. Originally a medieval castle but converted into a stately palace, it was the family seat o ...
(1708–1719), and also used at
Shirburn Castle
Shirburn Castle is a Grade I listed, moated castle located at the village of Shirburn, near Watlington, Oxfordshire. Originally constructed in the fourteenth century, it was renovated and remodelled in the Georgian era by Thomas Parker, the fi ...
, both early revivals of a medieval style of architecture.
It has been claimed that the design was based on the
Bastille
The Bastille (, ) was a fortress in Paris, known formally as the Bastille Saint-Antoine. It played an important role in the internal conflicts of France and for most of its history was used as a state prison by the kings of France. It was stor ...
, where Vanbrugh had been imprisoned for over four years in his youth, and the building may have been referred to as Bastille House before it became better known as Vanbrugh Castle. Visitors from Greenwich would pass by other structures in the grounds designed and built by Vanbrugh – the Nunnery, a second smaller single-story house occupied by Vanbrugh's brother
Philip; Mince-pie House or Vanbrugh House, occupied by his brother
Charles; and later added two white towers made from patented white bricks, perhaps for his two sons – before reaching a crenelated gateway, with a second gatehouse on the Dover road to the south.
Later history
The house passed through various owners after Vanbrugh's death in 1726. The next owner was Robert Holford (1686–1753) with his wife Sarah (née Vanderput). The novelist
Mary Anna Needell, née Lupton, was born there in 1830. Further extensions to the main house were added in the late 19th and early 20th century, but Mince-Pie House was demolished in 1902 and the Nunnery was demolished in 1911. The house was occupied by engineer Dr
Laurence Holker Potts from 1838, where he set up a laboratory creating equipment to treat spinal injuries. He left the house before his death in 1850.
Oil merchant
Alexander Duckham, who bought the castle in 1907 as his London home, added a prominent weathervane shaped like a duck in flight. He donated the house (and
Rooks Hill House in Sevenoaks) to the
RAF Benevolent Fund
The Royal Air Force Benevolent Fund (RAF Benevolent Fund or RAFBF) is the Royal Air Force's leading welfare charity, providing financial, practical and emotional support to serving and former members of the RAF – regardless of rank – as wel ...
in 1920 to be used as a school for the children of RAF personnel killed in service. Surprisingly, perhaps, the RAF school provided the choir for the Royal Naval College chapel, on the further side of Greenwich park. The boys were initially taught by Captain Slimming, in the only school room, before moving up to the nearby
The John Roan School
The John Roan School is a co-educational secondary school and sixth form located in Greenwich, south-east London, England.
History Grammar schools
The current school was originally two grammar schools. The boys' school was founded in 1677 and t ...
. The Wakefield Wing was added in 1938, but at the outbreak of war in 1939 the boys were evacuated to Rye and Bexhill. Once it was realised that any German invasion would most probably occur in that area, the school moved again to Wales. The building became Grade I listed property in October 1951. The choral conductor
James William Webb-Jones was Headmaster of the school from 1951 to 1955.
The choral musician
Peter Stanley Lyons, who was simultaneously Director of Music at the
Royal Naval College, Greenwich
The Royal Naval College, Greenwich, was a Royal Navy training establishment between 1873 and 1998, providing courses for naval officers. It was the home of the Royal Navy's staff college, which provided advanced training for officers. The equi ...
, was Director of Music at Vanbrugh Castle School from 1950 to 1954.
The school moved to
Duke of Kent School in
Ewhurst, Surrey
Ewhurst is a rural village and civil parish in the borough of Waverley in Surrey, England. It is located south-east of Guildford, east of Cranleigh and south of Shere.
The parish includes the smaller hamlets of Ellen's Green and Cox Green n ...
in 1976. The house was then acquired by a group of four people for £100,000 and converted to four private flats.
Property: The living quarters which earned this castle's keep: Sir John Vanbrugh's last home was built in the early 18th century on the lines of the Bastille prison
The Independent, 25 July 1992
In the 1980s, scenes from the film ''Mona Lisa
The ''Mona Lisa'' ( ; it, Gioconda or ; french: Joconde ) is a Half length portrait, half-length portrait painting by Italian artist Leonardo da Vinci. Considered an archetypal masterpiece of the Italian Renaissance, it has been described ...
'' were performed on location on the front circular driveway of Vanbrugh Castle.
File:Vanbrugh_Castle_from_the_west_-_geograph.org.uk_-_1145166.jpg
File:Vanbrugh_Castle_from_the_south_-_geograph.org.uk_-_1145159.jpg
References
External links
Modern architectural theory: a historical survey, 1673–1968
Harry Francis Mallgrave, Cambridge University Press, 2005, , p. 47
The English House: The Story of a Nation at Home
Clive Aslet, Bloomsbury Publishing, 2009, , p. 99-104
The story of Greenwich
Clive Aslet, Harvard University Press, 1999, , 182–4
Map
of Blackheath, 1740s
Old and new London: a narrative of its history, its people, and its places
See also
{{Coord, 51.4803, 0.0048, type:landmark_region:GB-GRE, display=title
Grade I listed buildings in the Royal Borough of Greenwich
Grade I listed houses in London
John Vanbrugh buildings